I am amazed on how president George Bush's new challenge of the 21st century, terrorism, is becoming the biggest excuse to turn more power to corporations and make the so called Rule of Law the private privilege for the biggest corporations rather than an equal right and obligation for citizens. George Bush is proceeding with his No Fault policies as his Homeland Security bill limits the legal liability for:

• Companies that make "antiterrorism technology," such as detection devices.
• Smallpox vaccine manufacturers and health care workers who administer the vaccine.
• Eli Lilly, maker of a vaccine containing thimerosal, which some parents believe has caused autism in their children.
• Pilots authorized to carry guns in cockpits and their airlines.
• Companies that provide airport screening of baggage and passengers.

I also learn that White House aides and Republicans in Congress say companies that provide services and make products designed to protect people from terrorism must be protected from lawsuits. So as the United States peddles the supposed invisible hand of the Free Market to spread democracy and alleviate poverty in the world, so the United States wages pre-emptive No Fault wars against terrorism to spread fear and destruction in the world.

We know that some three billion people (almost half the world's population) live on less than two dollars a day and yet the Americans are contemplating an unneeded war against Iraq at a cost of some US$13 billion per month, not to speak about the social consequences of the possible death of thousands of people. We must all listen to the beat of our hearts rather than to the shouts of the stock markets, and we must all listen to Jimmy Carter, rather than George Bush, when he says that America must be more generous and disarm.

References

Hall, Mimi Disputed provisions may delay homeland bill, USA TODAY http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2002-11-18-homeland_x.htm

Annan, Kofi. Message of the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, 17 October 2000 http://www.un.org/events/poverty2000/messages.htm

Carter: U.S. perceived as 'too arrogant.' CNN News, November 15, 2002 http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/11/15/carter.interview/index.html

US must disarm: Carter. Agence France-Presse, November 18 2002 http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/17/1037490051556.html